메리 크리스마스!!

Turns out, reality rarely lives up to fears.  And so it was on Tuesday, when the spouses performed Christmas carols in Korean as entertainment for the Korean speech competition.  Some pics below of our "special performance", and a video link here (with the lyrics below if you'd like to sing along!).  You'll see in true kindergarten fashion, I'm continually looking up at our teacher throughout the performance for cues :)  메리 크리스마스 -- Merry Christmas!

  

Christmas A-Caroling

What has occupied much of my brain space over the last few weeks is Christmas music.  Or more specifically, Korean versions of English Christmas songs.  Translating Korean Christmas songs back to English (which themselves had first been translated from English to Korean) is both hilarious and insightful.  For instance, "Santa Claus is coming to town" translated from Korean back to English becomes: "Santa Grandfather is coming to our village" (relative position matters a lot here in Korea; KFC's Colonel Sanders, for instance, is "KFC Grandfather").  The first two lines are: "If you cry, it's not okay.  If you cry, it's not okay -- you won't get a present if you cry" -- harsh!!

Another favorite is Rudolph (pronounced "Rudolpuh" -- as you can't end a word with a consonant in Korean).  The last line of the first verse talks about the tough life that Rudolph has -- in America, it's around not being able to participate in games; in Korea, the line is: "Poor Rudolph became an outsider" (which is a really bad thing here in Korean society!)

All of this practice is for our performance at the Samsung Korean speech competition today, which precedes the GSG Holiday Party.  The spouses are performing as entertainment!  At first, I had this vision of us rockin' it K-Pop style, kindda like this video of K-Pop stars singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer:

But alas, even after weeks of rehearsal, we are much less K-Pop glam, and much more like children in kindergarten... complete with our teacher standing in front of us and mouthing the words to us.  Our Jingle Bells sounds more like this (albeit, we sing much slower than this version):

Rounding out our Christmas medley, we have Santa Claus is coming to town, and a Korean children's winter song that translates into:

My hands are cold, my feet are cold because of the winter wind...
I really really hate the winter wind.

As if on cue, it's now time to head over to Samsung for our dress rehearsal!  Here goes nothing!!

Christmas Countdown

T minus ten days 'til Christmas!!  True, the first signs of Christmas here in late October brought my first pangs of homesickness (in Starbucks of all places!).  But now that the Christmas season is in full swing, there's something about the holiday that makes the world feel smaller.  It's like the verse in "Somewhere Out There": 

And even though I know how very far apart we are

It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

With Christmas being the current star of so many of our orbits, I smile thinking about Dan and Andrew and Kris working on the tree lots in LA (check them out here!), my parents getting ready for Christmas in the Philippines, and our friends and family gearing up for celebrations.  On my end, I'm sitting here right now listening to Christmas music, sipping Sugar Plum Spice Tea, and watching the snow fall outside.

Being good Bolenders, we bought our (live!) Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  It was actually more of a feat than it sounds, seeing as we were continually told there are only artificial trees available in Seoul.  So we were beyond excited to find trees for sale in Yangjae flower market!  The negotiation itself was a bit of a comedy, especially since we are experts in asking, "how much" in Korean ("alma yay yo?", but don't know our numbers well enough to understand the answers.  The ending was a bit surreal as well, with Tyler trying to negotiate from $140 (tree + delivery) to $120, and the salesman saying, "Fine! $100 for everything!!"  

Learning from year's past, we decide not to name our Christmas tree (I'm still sad about leaving poor Charlie on our sidewalk) -- though since this tree is still planted in a pot, we're hopeful we can keep it alive for all our Christmases here! (which, yes, we realize is a stretch for us...)

Even though Christianity is the largest religion in South Korea (with 29% of Koreans identifying themselves as Christian, followed next by 23% of Koreans identifying themselves as Buddhist), Christmas is actually not a huge holiday here.  Christmas Day itself is a national holiday, but companies only give that one day off and it's rare for Koreans to take long vacations between Christmas and New Years, like we do in the States.

That said, Seoul has dressed up for the holidays.  I came back from the States last week to find our apartment building all decked out:

In our own apartment, we're starting our own traditions, which has primarily consisted of evening egg nog, Homeland, and one piece of sea salt truffles each (until I sneak off and get more -- always getting caught by Tyler after I was the one making the rule of "just one each").

And parties!!!  We're gearing up for the Samsung GSG holiday party tomorrow night.  The theme this year is the "Oscars" -- which the spouses good-naturedly laugh about... what about just an old-fashioned theme of, I don't know, the holidays?!  But Tyler is part of the planning committee (and is coordinating the after-party), so I'm sure it will be fun, red carpet and all.  

I love this season!!!  Stay warm :)

I don't wanna grow up...

As I sat in a luxurious black car heading to Disney World, I felt a bit like the lead character in the movie, Thirteen Going on Thirty.  Leaving the conference center with everyone dressed in business attire and suits, I hummed songs from The Little Mermaid and felt giddy with excitement for my evening ahead.  Sure, I was alone and I only had a few hours, but how could I go on a last-minute business trip to Orlando without also going to the Magic Kingdom?!

When I got back from my around-the-world trip before starting business school, my father laughed at my photos -- saying that I did everything that I had wanted to do as a child -- ride hot air balloons, go scuba diving, pet kangaroos and koalas.  Tyler even has a name for these moments, often saying, "Okay, seven year old, Trish".

So this past Saturday night, 35-year old Trish took 7-year old Trish out to the Magical World of Disney.  Truth be told, I was a little nervous.  On our cross-country road trip coming home from India, Tyler and I went to Disneyland with his best man, Mike, and his girlfriend Ceci.  We got to Cindarella's castle and both wondered, "Um, is there a different castle somewhere else?? -- why is this so small?!"

And there were inklings of that this time as well... Driving to Magic Kingdom, I saw the monorail -- a dingy, old-fashion-looking tram that I remember being fascinated with as a kid -- it looked so futuristic and fast and clean!! (and I just couldn't believe it went directly from our hotel to the most magical place on earth!!)

I laughed as the driver dropped me off, giving me his card, looking into my eyes, and saying with full earnestness: "If you feel at all unsafe coming back at night by yourself, you just go ahead and give me a call and I'll come pick you up.  Feeling unsafe in Disney?!  

Riding the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, I got my first glimpse of Cindarella's castle and literally gasped from excitement.  Let's do this!!

If the monorail remains a bit of a time capsule, other aspects of Disney seem quite futuristic.  While I went traditional with an old-school ticket, as I entered the park, I noticed many families had Disney "Magic Bands", which were launched earlier this year (great article here).  These bands are a CRM-geek's dream, allowing Disney to track guests throughout the parks and resorts with RFID readers.  Everyone seems to love them -- they allow guests to check into Fastpass rides (another innovation since childhood) and purchase Disney items and photos (I saw little boys having a field day in the candy store with these!).  In return, Disney gets all sorts of customer data (what rides you go on, what you eat and where, how long you stay) -- in a way that should be scary, but you kindda give them the benefit of the doubt to make the happiest place on earth even happier.

All worries of being underwhelmed went out the door as soon as I entered the park.  Disney was dressed up for Christmas, with Christmas songs playing on Main Street and decorations galore.

I stopped at a stand and bought myself Minnie ears -- if I'm going to do this, might as well do this right!!  True confession: I really did want the princess ears with the pretty pink and purple glitter.  Alas, that was probably too much, seeing as I'd be walking around by myself and all, without anyone to attest that I'm really not crazy.

Instead, I went for the glow-in-the-dark Minnie ears.  Much more sophisticated.

As it turned out, I arrived that park in perfect timing, just in time for the lighting ceremony at Cindarella's castle.  And it wasn't just any lighting ceremony, but one with the characters from Frozen.  As Elsa started to transform the castle into an ice palace, all the kids were oohing and ahhing from the incredible light show.  Then as projected lights gave way to actual lights, accompanied with white fireworks and "Let it Go" instrumentals, I found myself and all the adults around me genuinely oohing and ahhing ourselves.  "Wow" came out of my mouth about half a dozen times during the show.  Yoga and meditation have an expression for this: "child's eyes" or "beginner's eyes".  If you want the capitalist version of that, just come to Disney (the full moon and clear night certainly helped):

Walking away from Main Street and heading to the rides, I had my first flash of self-consciousness: am I really going to go on rides by myself?  As it turns out, I got over that really quickly.  Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World were just as much fun as I remember (in fact, as soon as I finished Thunder Mountain, I considered going right back on line again).

Even though I was massively jetlagged and tired (having just arrived from Korea a few hours before), I definitely wanted to stay for the fireworks.  In fact, I had a plan: see fireworks, head to Space Mountain while all the families leave the park, and then head home when the monorail is less crowded.

Turns out, everyone seemed to have the same idea.  One hour wait at Space Mountain at 10:30pm.  I decide to do the adult, responsible thing and head home, seeing as I had sessions and meetings early the next morning.  On my way out though, I hear music and investigate: the Incredibles are having a dance party!  How can I leave now?!  Ignoring the voice in my head ("you'll look dumb dancing alone!"), I head out to the middle and dance away.  Turns out when you're dancing with cartoon characters, it's actually hard to feel that self-conscious.

Completely amped from the dance party, I ditch the idea of an early night in, and instead head back over to Space Mountain.  I'd show you the picture of me screaming, but Disney has gotten much more sophisticated in making you buy their photos (no more taking pictures of the screen!).

As I head out of the park, the Electric Parade is in full swing, which gives me more time to ogle over Cindarella's Castle -- it really looks like something from a faraway magical land.

I go to bed humming "Let It Go", grateful that it's apparently possible to not outgrow the magic.

Seoul doesn't mess around

Like all things Korean, there's an earnestness about the weather here.  You want winter? -- we'll give you winter, and ASAP at that.  This screenshot was from 10:31pm last night: 16 degrees F and felt like -1 with the frigid wind chill; what?!  The mild 50 degree weekend weather feels like a distant memory.

Of course, Tyler and I both left our gloriously warm Mongolian winter hats in NYC storage... I vaguely remember having this conversation as we were packing... not quite sure what we were thinking (as if hats took up a lot of space in our suitcase anyway)...

The amazing thing is that with this frigid weather, it is still incredibly sunny out -- as though the weather is embodying the ubiquitous Korean mentality of: "Everything is happy!" (said with two fingers up)

This is one of my favorite photos from the fall, hanging out with Rich when he was in town: "Open your dreams!!" -- and when you do, you'll find that everything is dolphins and unicorns and pink cellos and bubbles galore! (courtesy of Lotte Mall).  Sarcasm does not exist here.  The culture is one of happiness, love, and joy (or at least outwardly continually striving for that).  There's something about the sunny winter that embodies that as well (perhaps it's all the cartoon happy snowmen decorating the city's window displays?)

And so with that, I'm heading off to morning Korean class -- bundled for winter, but humming: "Everything is happy" (to the tune of "everything is awesome!") in my head.

Our first snow!

It's snowing!!  December 1st, as if right on cue, Seoul's first snow.  I'm sitting here at our dining room table (which, based on the number of times we actually have eaten here, should more appropriately be called my "writing table"), hot tea brewing and listening to opera on Pandora (thanks to "hola", which tricks my computer to thinking we're still in the US).  The Verdi is a bit dramatic perhaps, but somehow seems the appropriate way to kick off the winter season.

All last week, the blog that was forever in my head but never made its way to paper (screen?) was called "The Longest Autumn".  I returned from India (with temperatures in the 70s) prepared for frigid weather in Seoul, only to find the temperature shockingly mild, with my street looking like this:

On an early summer weekend trip to the Hamptons last May (thanks Airbnb!), we "drew" our ideal apartment and neighborhood in the sand.  In many ways, it was actually the turning point for me around truly getting excited about Seoul and the life that we could purposefully build together there.  We drew nature all around, with the squiggly-line river on the right and the very realistic-looking mountains that our apartment looked out onto.

As it turns out, we got this and more, with our apartment a ten minute walk from the river in one direction, the lake in a different direction, and Olympic Park (Seoul's equivalent of Central Park) in a different direction.  Here's what my walk to the park looked like last week:

And now picture everything covered in snow!  What a difference a week makes.  As I've been writing this, the falling snowflakes have gotten bigger, swirling around frenetically and making me want to cover myself up in our blanket and take a mid-morning nap (to be fair, this isn't just any blanket; as Tyler says: "it feels like a gigantic teddy bear is giving us a warm hug!")

Seoul is our first city living abroad with truly four seasons (besides hot, hotter, really hot, monsoon).  It's been really fun rediscovering old pleasures (jumping on crunchy fallen leaves) and marrying new traditions with old... 

And so with that, the only thing left to say is: Welcome Winter!!  Please be brief...